Donairs a hit on the Danforth

By BILL POWER BUSINESS REPORTERPublished April 26, 2012 - 5:30pm Last Updated April 29, 2012 - 6:12am

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Nova Scotia delicacy now available in Toronto

You can now get an authentic one of these in Toronto, thanks to The Fuzz Box, a restaurant recently opened by Berwick native Neil Dominey. (ERIC WYNNE / Staff / File)

Toronto. What can be said? Great place, but no NHL hockey team to speak of.

And until this week, a city sadly lacking in purveyors of fine donairs.

Hogtown now has its own classic Nova Scotia-style donair stop, courtesy of Berwick’s own Neil Dominey.

“You might find something called a donair here, but truth is, I could not find anything resembling what we call a donair in Nova Scotia, which is the best,” Dominey said Thursday.

The musician’s new restaurant, The Fuzz Box, named after his band, is attracting hordes of ex-pat Nova Scotians, and lots of native Torontonians, to the downtown Danforth-Greenwood neighbourhood to sample the unique flavours of one of this province’s more famous “gourmet” delights.

Dominey did not go down the road to Upper Canada looking for epicurean fame.

“I just got tired of looking for a good donair,” he said.

Being a musician and proud member of The Fuzz Box, it was a desire for some recognition of his onstage capabilities that originally attracted him to Canada’s largest city.

However, the music scene proved disappointing. Some clubs charge acts who want to perform, he said.

Regular longings for donairs, prepared like they make them “back home,” eventually put Dominey into an entrepreneurial frame of mind.

“This city was filled with Nova Scotians and they could not get a real donair anywhere,” he said.

The name of his struggling rock act was soon shining brightly on a sign above a restaurant that promised its visitors a unique opportunity to sample a donair they would remember.

“We totally sold out on our first day. Actually, the entire experience has been crazy. We did not expect such a wild response,” said Dominey.

Customers were lining up for Nova Scotia-style donairs at his shop at 3 p.m., he said when contacted Thursday.

Dominey had some experience in the restaurant business in the Annapolis Valley, but said it was his love of the classic Nova Scotia donair that inspired The Fuzz Box (a fuzz box is a distortion device for electric guitars) and its take on the classic after-hours Halifax Pizza Corner staple.

“Nova Scotians do not want some fancied-up gourmet version of the donair; they want the real thing.”

Dominey does not have to wait for late-night crowds of nightclubbers to sell his version of the classic mess of spiced beef, sweet sauce and vegetables on a pita that was created in Nova Scotia in the 1970s.

Donair lovers are actually showing up at opening time early in the day.

“So far it’s been great,” said Dominey of his business success.

The original Nova Scotia donair was the brainchild of the Kamoulakos brothers of Halifax, who concocted the formula in the early 1970s that helped make Pizza Corner the popular after-hours gathering spot that it is today.

“We get a lot of people from Nova Scotia, and who’ve visited and lived in Nova Scotia, and everybody seems to have a memory of the good old days and the best donairs in the world.”

“Lots of people say our donairs are better than those they had in Nova Scotia, so that’s pretty exciting,” he said.

Dominey said he had not intended to make a career out of the donair business and still has big plans for his band.

“We want to revive the live music scene in this city,” said the lead singer in the Toronto band.

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Friday morning, we got a couple of tweets about other places in the Toronto area that serve donairs. Until our dream donair road trip happens, we can't vouch for their quality or authenticity.

@chronicleherald There's a place in Burlington and Milton called Halifax Donair. The Fuzz Box is not the only true donair shop in the GTA.

They still can't be the same.
They aren't heated up by 9 percent royalty Emera power
They don't come with 15 percent HST
They don't have NDP government stamp of dis-approval
They haven't been delivered over the best pot-hole infested roads in North America, or chauffered by extremely well paid bus drivers while in your jobless cold(Emera again), hands, or walking the 1/2 mile to the maybe next bus stop. Do I have to draw pictures?

If they had all this...possibly they might taste the same, just a little less bitter, no I said butter not bitter.

I love Donairs. Unfortunatly the quality of Halifax Donairs has gone way downhill. Places like King of donair don't seem to even fry the meat after its been cut from the stick. Sydney has a great Donair at the reincarnated Island Greek donair. Having said that Danforth has amazing Greek food. I can't help but think the donair doesn't belong there. just sayin